PLUMBERS- Your Opinion PEASE! I'm desperate

I live in a townhouse. Both sides of street lined with townhouses, main line running down middle of street. Each townhouse has a lateral that runs out to the main. Each house has a Wye at the end of the lateral with a screw on cap at the end of each end of the wye. My house (at the end of the street has pop off caps. My lateral overflows every three to six months (and has even backed up into my downstairs. I have spent over $2,500 in sewer cleaning in last few years. They pull out fibrous paper towel, blue shop towels, shrimp, white mice (you know) and none of these things have come from my house. When the sewer backed up into my downstairs I was not even home. How can that be from me? The HOA says if it is my lateral backing up it's my responsibility. They say if the main is clear it must be me. I say the main is clear because it backs up into my lateral, pops off the cap and overflows in front of my house because I am at the end of the street.
I refused to keep paying a plumber. They sent out a plumber who charged $550. I refused to pay and they kept adding charges and fees on my HOA monthly bill. They leined my house and I had to pay $1700 to clear the lein. What do you think? Is there any way I can prove that this is not coming from my house? Why am I the only one that has a pop off cap? Should I get a lawyer? I really can't afford a lawyer. Can the city help me?
Desperate for advice.
Debra

Debra, you obviously have a legal problem. It will not go away by itself. It would appear that you are not at fault, but there's little we can do to help you. In my opinion, you should have contacted the city when this first occurred, and you should have contacted an attorney long ago as well. I realize attorneys are expensive, but if the blame can be proven to belong to someone else, you would possibly have a lawsuit against them. A number of years ago, the sewer backed up into my house. The city found that my sewer line emptied into the main in a manhole. A restaurant on the hill above my home had a grease trap failure and the grease came down the line and into the manhole where it compacted into a ball that plugged the outgoing side of the manhole. The city paid for cleaning my basement and today, even though that restaurant is no longer there, they inspect the line frequently and rod it out. But, you can not just go on and on paying to clean up the mess and then expect the city to pay. They will ask why you waited.

Before hiring an attorney, I would try to determine exactly what is causing the problem. If you are sure the items clogging your lateral did not originate in your home, then it's worth your while to investigate, even if it means spending some of your own money. The first step would be to contact your Sanitation District and ask them to perform an inspection of the main. It may also be worthwhile to hire an engineer to give you an independent survey of your lateral as well as the main. If you can determine who is responsible (and have reasonable evidence to substantiate your claims), then I would try to negotiate with the responsible party in order to have them:

1. Correct the problem.
2. Reimburse you for documented expenses: engineering report, plumbing fees, cleaning expenses.

If you are reasonable then, they may be willing to settle in order to avoid the expense of litigation -- this would be the best solution for all involved. I would ONLY hire an attorney as a last resort.

Good luck Debra. And please keep us updated.

P.S. I think the "pop-off cap" is a blessing in disguise: better to have the sewage flood your yard than have it back up into your home.

If there is something clogging the main, it would NOT flow back to the upstream end of the line where you apparently are. It would flow down to its connection to the rest of the system if it broke loose. Anything from the main that backed up into your lateral would NOT clear the main line and it would still be plugged until a plumber cleared it. If you did not have "pop off" caps then even more would come into your house. Your diagnosis appears faulty, but there is no way we can do an evaluation of your problem remotely.

Get someone in there that has a sewer camera and have them scope it out.

You must be lower than the lowest manhole between you and the clogg in the main. It sounds like they added a relief "pop up" but its not sufficient. This makes me think your lowest fixture in the house is even with the relief drain and it backed up out of both the relief and your lowest fixture.

The "fix" for this is the sewer provider installing a full size relief drain off their main line and regular maintenace to the sewer so the relief drian never has to relieve itself.

Sure I'm speculating and I dont know for sure your exact situation but I have some experience with this in the past.

I would consult the city plumbing inspector first. That should be free but keep in mind you might get what you pay for. I would also request the sewer providers engineer be present at the meeting with the plumbing inspector. They probably will suggest a backwater valve but IMO they are not reliable enough in this situation because the damage is so extensive when a backup occurs. It may be the only choice they give you......thats when I would get my lawyer involved.